Farm Fresh: Autumn a good time to explore local markets

BY VANESSA McCRAY
vmccray@record-eagle.com

October 05, 2008 12:00 am

—

WILLIAMSBURG -- An autumnal drive up U.S. 31 from Traverse City to Eastport takes a traveler past farm stands large and small, offering a cornucopia of fruits and vegetables, and a few surprises, too.

Take Farmer White's green-hued margarita jelly. No, really. Take it and spread it on crackers with cream cheese or use it as a glaze on pork or chicken, advised Mary Cooper. She developed the jarred concoctions sold inside the red-roofed, roadside hut in Williamsburg. There's cherry amaretto jam, raspberry fizz jam (an original batch was made from a 35-year-old bottle of pink champagne), rhubarb orange marmalade, and jars of other goodies such as pickled asparagus and apricot jalapeño.

"Everybody does something different," Cooper said.

Her parents started the farm 50 years ago, and Cooper remembered putting fruits and vegetables out by the road on a self-serve stand. By the early 1970s, the operation evolved to a pick-up truck. It was a big deal when the stand moved into the mini-barn-like building it presently occupies, she said. Now, they're building a new kitchen next door.

Cooper enjoys the time she spends at the stand. One year, another family with the last name "White" had their picture taken outside the Farmer White's sign and used it for a Christmas card. She remembers them when they stop.

"I see a lot of the same people," she said.

It's the same at other stops along this farming corridor. In Antrim County, dozens of farms offer markets, stands or produce picking opportunities, said Stan Moore, director of the county Michigan State University Extension. There's a trend "to buy more local food," and consumers are "trying to get a little bit closer to the farm," he said.

Rose King of King Orchards Fruit Stand said fall is a fun time to explore farm markets.

"The colors are fabulous in the fall, and then, of course ... Halloween," she said.

The market is located about nine miles north of Elk Rapids and is chock full of canning tomatoes; rotund pumpkins; knobby, warty gourds that resemble alien creatures; bags of ginger gold apples; and gobs of golden, gooey honey. Some items are measured in pecks and bushels, and handmade signs display prices.

The stand also has a signature speciality.

"The caramel apple pie is the bomb," King said.

She enjoys meeting customers. On a recent morning, a couple from Colorado Springs and some Ukrainian customers stopped. Then there are the loyal customers, like the lady who filled up her freezer with purchases throughout the growing season.

"They know where the fruit came from. They know a little history about who's taking care of this food," King said.

Bargy's Farm Market & Bakery welcomes hungry harvest-seekers to the front door with a sign inviting visitors to "sit, relax, gossip." That's just what people like to do, said Susan Kane. Warm scents filled the Kewadin market, and Kane checked on three cherry pies and a peach pie in the oven.

Kane said the secret to the cherry pies is to use vinegar and egg in the pie crust and tapioca in the cherries. It's an old-fashioned recipe that still earns rave reviews.

"That's the big thing here. They're very well-known," said Kane of the place's pies.

A log cabin is home to the nearby White's Beef and Fruit Farm in Kewadin. Owner Mark White said the farm stand started back in the 1960s with a tent near the road. He opened a large freezer and brandished a tomahawk steak, an item for which the stand is famous.

"You have to have a unique product to get people to stop. You got to have something different," White said.

Large, multi-farmer markets in nearby towns have impacted business "a bit" but he still counts on the "local diehards."

"A lot of it's going back to knowing where it comes from. A lot of people (are) interested in wholesomeness," White said.

Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.